Today, Apple has begun seeding new versions of OS X Mountain Lion, iTunes, Safari and Java to Apple employees. The new OS X build is version 10.8.5, and it is a supplemental update to the version that was publicly released last month. Last week, we noted that Apple was preparing this new version with bug fixes for MacBook Airs, USB, and HDMI, and today’s new seed is a higher build number (12F45 versus 12F42). This indicates that Apple is making progress on the release and that the launch is nearing for customers…

While the Developer Center still shows iTunes 11.1 beta 2, which was released August 16, today’s Mavericks Developer Preview 8 includes an updated version of iTunes 11.1 (build 110, as compared to 48 previously).

iOS 7 device icons are included in this build and a new “Apps” organizer for configuring apps on iOS devices (Thanks, Filipe!):

Also noteworthy are two new buttons in the podcasts section for accessing old episodes and a new sidebar for settings.

While listening to iTunes Radio, the history button now shows songs that were last played (along with audio preview and purchase buttons):

When you’re down to just one final skip, “1 skip left” appears near the skip button while listening to iTunes Radio:

With iTunes 11.1, a notification appears every time the song changes. In the latest beta, there is an option to turn off this notification in the Preferences pane and the option to keep song changes in Notification Center is also present.

The update makes the shuffle button work again and disables the unlimited skips on iTunes Radio loophole.

Alongside iOS 7 beta 4, Apple has provided developers with iTunes 11.1 beta. The biggest new feature is built-in iTunes Radio. iTunes Radio is Apple’s upcoming streaming music service that is also integrated into iOS 7.